Brainwash, Extremism, Animals

Day after day I only realise how much difference there is between us and they, between the people who want this, and the people who want that.

It is not only about what we want and what they want, it's about how we look at things and how they look at things.

To be able to look at the other and trust them without being afraid, takes a lot of work and patience, and few of us are willing to invest time in shortening the distance of ignorance.

I received today a powerpoint presentation about Iran, sent by people who don't want to be terrorized by Hezbollah and Iran (according to them) and trying to raise awareness in their own way. Of course, it had pictures of executed men, hung from their necks and left to die for actions as silly as drinking booze, men being tortured and whipped and women being buried while alive and such. I don't know when was that, or where was that exactly, it might be Iran or not, but wherever it was, it is horrible, inhumane, unacceptable, existant and there should be something we can do about it.

It depends on which level you are looking at things, because today I can only see two poles when watching TV, reading the news websites and listening to the news on the radio. These two poles are as far from each other as they can be, and as close to each other as they shouldn't be, or maybe they should be that close?

It's very simple, I know many people, and I might be one of them, who are afraid of Hezbollah everthrowing the government, ruling Lebanon and making Lebanon a second Iran. How do we answer those fears? are they valid? do they make sense?

In its sacred and divine ideology, religion should be here to help, and not ruin and destroy. As smart and intelligent as a human being can be, as extremist and dangerous and stupid as "human being" can be. Brainwashing? That's another story. I will talk about it some other time.

Sa nabka mouwa77adin

We will become united and we will remain united for Lebanon. Don't sink in xenophobia. Resist the will to fight, the will to judge and the will to hate. Listen to the other side, you might really find out important facts, i.e. they're just like us (some of course).

Xenophobia and Labelling, the source of all wars

We are quick to judge, fear and even hate the unknown. We may not admit it, but we are all plagued with xenophobic tendencies. Psychology Today

From dictionary.com: xen~o~pho~bi~a
–noun an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

From Wikipedia: Xenophobia denotes a phobic attitude toward strangers or of the unknown. It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from one's self.

Despite our better nature, it seems, fear of foreigners or other strange-seeming people comes out when we are under stress. That fear, known as xenophobia, seems almost hardwired into the human psyche.

[...]

Researchers are discovering the extent to which xenophobia can be easily — even arbitrarily — turned on. In just hours, we can be conditioned to fear or discriminate against those who differ from ourselves by characteristics as superficial as eye color.

The above quotes are taken from this article - Psychology Today magazine, it explains how xenophobia can be easily triggered among two groups and we are not just talking about racism or sexism... we see this in daily life, i.e. accountants vs graphic designer...

I recommend this article, it provides good examples, factual experiments and a very good and elaborate explanation of xenophobia.

How is Xenophibia related to Labelling?
Labelling itself is not "bad", because if I label poison as poison, I prevent myself from drinking it, thus from dying! However, Labelling combined with xenophobia, it becomes... Bad!.

During this war, I have seen throughout reading many blogs, and some online news websites that allow comments, how "stereotype" exists severely among people. And I admit I stereotype as well, and I always work on realising that my judgement is just based on fear of what I don't know, and try to come up with judgement that is based on more rational analysis amd facts.

Do we all try reconsidering our judgments? How often do we make an effort not to stereotype? not to judge based on a certain label? How much do we ignore about the other? And how xenophobic are we?